Beginning February 7, 2013 the City of Colorado Springs will implement a new fee schedule for Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) requests. The fee is a minimal charge that is intended to cover a portion of the costs the City incurs in responding to CORA requests. There will be no charge for CORA requests that take less than 2 hours to complete, and involve production of less than 25 pages. CORA requests that take longer than 2 hours of City staff time for the research and compilation of documents will be subject to a nominal charge of $20 per hour, and CORA requests that require production of more than 25 pages will be charged 25 cents per page.

In 2012, the City incurred over $200,000 in employee time and expense in responding to CORA requests. The new CORA fees will not cover the entire amount of the City costs in responding to CORA, but it will certainly help defray the City expenses. The new CORA fees are similar, if not less, than the CORA fees currently charged by similar cities and government entities in Colorado, including Denver, Ft. Collins, Aurora, the Governor’s Office, Pueblo, and others. The City respects and honors the purpose of CORA, and will continue to respond to CORA requests promptly and in full compliance with state law.

The City of Colorado Springs has an online CORA request form at www.SpringsGov.com/CORA. Information on submitting a CORA request can be found at this web address.